Oliver was the first patient in the world to take part in the trial, four years ago. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on Thursday with resounding success.

Regular chemotherapy dosages are usually unsuccessful on older patients, meaning palliative care is often the only option.

But researchers discovered the experimental drug Venetoclax could be combined with a low dose of chemotherapy with remarkable results: a five-fold increase in response rate and a 50 percent survival rate beyond 10 months.